Nice, but not great.

Rating: 7/10 (30 July 2002)

After having won the Oscar for "Cinema Paradiso", a movie I enjoy very much, watching this one gives me the impression that Tornatore is pulling everything up to repeat that experience. Although the story is original and the score is more than well done, this movie lacks of "small" other things. The set sometimes looks fake, like for e.g. when at the beginning the ship is approaching New York, passing close to the statue of liberty. The main actors are not convincing, Pruitt Taylor Vince fits physically as Max, but there are many scenes, where he looks like he'd burst out laughing, although dealing with dramatic issues. Tim Roth, I'm sorry to say this, didn't convince me. At certain points, for e.g. the scene where he does fall in love with the passenger was completely unbelievable in my eyes, not for the story, but for acting. There are also some goofs (I consider the appearance of a black man around 1920s on a Luxus ship being so nice treated and heartly welcome in a first class area like in the movie somehow not being realistic).
7 out of 10.